EWR4–David A Jaycock – The Improvised Killing of Uncle Faustus and Other
Mythologies – Reviews
Losing Today
Magazine
Barely tipping
the scales at just over 33 minutes in length, the debut solo mini album from
Big Eyes Family Players’ David A Jaycock is a beautifully
woven quilt comprising of 14 miniature segments of sparsely hued dustily
archaic acoustic motifs from a time long since past.
‘The Improvised Killing of Uncle Faustus and other Mythologies’ makes for an
interloping parched parade of warming pastoral elegance (just check out the
cascading warmth of the John Williams-esque ‘Tremelo Party’ or the creepy carnival-esque
’56-57’) and eerily bespoken rustics, autumnal in design this collection of
bleakly beautiful rambles touches distant though familiar boundaries. Like the
revisiting of a long since unoccupied former childhood home the memories bound
forever in the buildings very innate essence are relayed over and over again by
the groans and sighs it gives up So to with Jaycock
the melodies on occasion creak, whisper and softly echo with the dearly
departed spirit of Fahey (especially on the achingly ghostly ‘Hood Faire’ with
its understated Budd-esque macabre pining) and the
occasional visitation of Drake (as on the cantering warmth of the picturesque ‘Reeleel‘).
Jaycock’s sparse almost invisible technique forces
you to pull up closer - soon you are beguiled, enchanted and breathless at the
haunting romance unfolding within, as slender as they may be these salutary
timeless melodies evoke colour and atmosphere to the proceedings without the
need for words or a script. Jaycock casts his net of
influence wide at times your left dizzy by the array of references that are
subtly interwoven into the collections matrix - sometimes you feel as though
you’ve stumbled upon some hitherto pool of unreleased incidental suites that
had initially been commissioned to adorn Morricone’s
‘Once upon a time in the west’ soundtrack as on the noire-ish
Big Eyes like ‘Ruben’. Elsewhere elements of the ethereal sea shanty grace more
becoming of early Black Heart Procession recordings come to pass on the opening
ambit ’A Cocktail Party’ while the storm looming death rattle Mexicana motifs of the elegiac though visibly portending
’Es Cortina Para Usted’
with its crafted - as were - mid phase seasonal change courts with a notion of
a collaboration between godspeed and Sackville with
the spectacle overseen by Mancini.
All these gems comes packaged in the by now trademark handmade lino printed
sleeves and are scarcely limited to just 250 copies - so what are you waiting
for - go - buy - cherish.
Norman Records
Here's a rather
special sounding CD from DAVID A JAYCOCK on Early Winter Recordings.
This is a guy from Big Eyes making some really beautiful sounding music.
Man and acoustic guitar as one making some gorgeous folk meanderings. Fingerplucking ahoy this is gonna
appeal to fans of James Blackshaw, John Fahey,
Byron Coley –
Harp Magazine (US)
Fourteen short tracks by this Big Eyes member,
cloaked in a variety of rainments, most of which feature
his delicate acoustic guitar work. Jaycock seems less
dedicated to the “high technique” approach of Jack Rose, Ben Chasny et al, than he is interested in creating small,
pretty landscapes to inhabit. There are many strange moments scattered across
this largely-instrumental disk as well, but they are all very genteel in nature
and none the worse for it.
Terrascope
For me, one of
last year’s most entrancing and playagainable debuts
was James William Hindle’s ‘Joshong’
on the Early Winter imprint (www.earlywinterrecordings.co.uk).
The next entrant on this Sheffield-based label is most certainly of equal
worth. ‘The Improvised Killing of Uncle Faustus and Other Mythologies’ CDR by David
A. Jaycock (a member of Big Eyes on Pickled Egg
Records and of avant-psychsters Bingo Jesus) is a
14-strong, self-penned collection where in the main, folk-based and acoustic
driven melodies are offset in ways mysterious by creepy background tendrils and
ghostly Moog spectres, all under the watchful gaze of a newly painted and ever
smiling Mr. Punch. The funereal ‘Ruben’ and the strangely light-headed feel of
‘George’s Square Kite’ can’t fail to evoke images of dust motes in Edwardian
drawing rooms, faded brown copperplate and solitary angels guarding overgrown
and neglected mausoleums.